Belper ready for their local derby

Belper Town could be suffering from a touch of ‘Belper Blues’ after crashing out of the FA Cup on Saturday to Daventry Town, as well as a defeat in midweek at the hands of Carlton Town.

The Nailers had made a positive start to the season beforehand but this last week has proved a reality check for all the players.

Manager Peter Duffield is cautious his team doesn’t slip to last season’s habits. “We’ve hit the woodwork six times now this season, we’re not quite getting the rub of the green, and we need to be careful we don’t have a repeat of last season’s early results.

“We left ourselves with too much to do last time round. What’s important is we don’t make the same mistake again.

“Until last week, we’d had a good start, but now we sit around midtable and we’re out of the cup.”

Belper were left rueing missed opportunities after slipping to a 3-1 home defeat on Saturday, and the manager was disappointed with the third goal conceded.

“It was a poor one to give away but I’ll risk losing by an extra goal if it means we give ourselves a chance of getting the equaliser. It worked against Sutton Coldfield when we scored, and I’m sure it’ll work again, but unfortunately on this occasion it’s gone against us.

“It doesn’t concern me that we’re missing chances, we’ve hit the woodwork several times and we haven’t buried our chances over this last week, but goals haven’t been a problem for us generally.

“It would concern me if we weren’t creating the chances, but the most important thing is the players keep getting themselves in those positions.

“We’ve got a lot of injuries, especially at the back, and there would have been three changes there had all the players been fit.

“We are hoping that a few will be back for the weekend’s game.

“The players need to show desire now, they need to prove to me and the club that they are good enough and want to be involved.

“This is a fantastic football club and they need to show they’re privileged to play here”.

He concluded: “What we haven’t shown is our ability to win after going behind in games, this is where that passion and desire can be shown.”

This Saturday, the Nailers are home to Loughborough Dynamo in the league (3pm kick off)